Worthing Birdman- one giant leap!

We'd arrived at the pier fairly early on the Sunday morning and the weather didn't look great initially but we prepared our "craft" and got ready for flying anyway.
The sun came out as the day went on, by the time we were due to jump the sun was bright but the winds were very strong. We watched our competitors jump ahead of us, some of whom struggled to actually leave the platform with winds pushing them back.
When it came to our turn to fly we made our way up to the top of the platform holding on to our flying carpet for fear it would blow away! We spoke to the compères and then had to wait before jumping for a good ten minutes as the wind was too strong! The wait was agonizing, I think Kathleen was more worried than I was, we were sat for the whole time waiting so it didn't actually feel like we were that high up.
After being given the go ahead we pranced around for a little while dancing to our chosen music ( of course we had picked "A Whole New World" from Aladdin) we had a couple of  visual gags such as holding up a small globe when the song says "I can show you the world" because we think we're both pretty hilarious!

Then Kathleen poked me and we both ran to the edge and leapt.

It was terrifying, the feeling of no longer having something solid beneath your feet, that the ground had simply disappeared was completely odd.
It felt like I was falling for ages, I remember screaming as I left the platform, running out of scream and still falling for what felt like several more minutes.
I hit the water fairly straight apart from having my arms out instead of straight by my sides as advised which smarted a lot. I had a couple of seconds panic under water with a mouth and nose full of sea and my face covered by my ridiculous plastic six pack before I surfaced.

The rescue boat came to meet us quickly and as soon as I reached it I couldn't stop giggling. The massive adrenaline rush and joy at being alive and no longer hurtling through the air meant I had uncontrollable giggles until I had to transfer from the boat onto a board on the back of a jet ski, being dragged through the water I had to close my mouth or have it fill again with water!

Though I'm quite pleased that I've done it, there is no way that I'd want to do this again. I think it was the feeling of falling that was worse than actually hitting the water. People kept telling us that the water wasn't too cold and would be fine but I'd never had any fears about that. Kathleen and I regularly swim outdoors in Salford Quays and I'd swam the previous day in the sea so that wasn't an issue but actually leaving the security of the solid platform and trusting you'd survive was awful.

The last six pictures come courtesy of John Topman whose amazing photos are on flickr

August

 

Well now, I haven't really managed to write very much here this month have I?
August has seemed to be a much busier month than I expected it to be. Even though I haven't been working at all its been a packed month.I've been away for a couple of long weekends, taken part in a triathlon, volunteered at a festival, done rather a lot of DIY, completed my crocheted blanket, met up with lots of friends, visited many museums, pitched several tents, been karaokeing  and done a lot of creative sewing.
My summer is not quite finished yet either as I'm off for an impromptu trip to Israel, Palestine and Jordan  for a week starting on Monday. I have done absolutely no planning for the trip as I'm meeting a friend over there, so I'm just hoping for the best.

I've got a lot I'd like to share, including some fantastic pictures of our Worthing Birdman jump, I'm hoping I'll get time to schedule some posts for while I'm away.

Behind the scenes at Worthing Birdman

On Sunday my friend Kathleen and I took part in Worthing Birdman. I'm going to split up the pictures I've got because there are quite a lot!
We got to the pier just after half ten on Sunday. It did not look like a promising start to the day, there were a couple of brief but heavy showers, the sky was dark and made the water look uninviting.
Other competitors arrived throughout the day, it was so much fun to see everyone's costumes! There are three categories of flyers, home made aircrafts, fun flyers(us) and serious competitors with modified hangliders. For our category the judging was based on costumes, platform routine and distance.
There was a lot of camaraderie with the other flyers, almost everyone was nervous so there was much discussion of technique, what was the best way to enter the water, were you taking your craft with you etc.

 Most other entrants in our category were raising money for charities too so there was also discussions about that and why they'd chosen their costumes. The pair dressed as Dastardly and Mutley were rasing money for Canine Support Animals , the girls dressed as giant boobs were raising for Breast Cancer care. We were fundraising as Aladdin and Jasmine as Aladdin was a street child just like those whom Retrak supports.

There were also two entrants from an Australian children's tv show. This gent here in his bowler hat and the girl near the top in cricket whites are making a programme where they travel around the world entering bizarre competitions, there's a chance Kathleen and I will feature on Rookies on the Run on ABC at some point! 

This amazing, steam punk inspired flying machine was made largely of recycled materials and was very impressive. Mike the guy in the blue overalls had made it using a BMX and lots of jumk and spray paint. I'd love to have a go at making something like this!

Worthing Birdman preparations!

This Sunday, the 11th, with my friend Kathleen and I will be taking part in Worthing Birdman competition where contestants dress in funny costumes and jump off the end of Worthing Pier and try to fly.
Now, while Kathleen and I do like to have peculiar adventures, this one is a big leap for both of us, particularly as I'm really rather scared of heights! The reason we'll be doing this and why we've spent weeks sewing costumes, preparing our "craft" and honing our dance routine is to raise money for Retrak, the charity that Kathleen works for.Retrak works with street children in 4 African countries and tries to rehabilitate children as young as 5 who find themselves without homes or families to care for them.

I'd love it if you were able to support me in raising money for Retrak you can do so online here;
There's also a rumour that the competition will be live streamed so when I find out about that I'll update
PS. can you guess who we're going to be?

Things from the internet

Its been absolutely ages since I did a post like this about different things I've been reading and thinking about around the internet.

This gorgeous lettering and sentiment is by Mary Kate McDevitt, there are a lot of other beautiful pieces on her website too.

I've been having discussions about gender and masculinity/ femininity with several different friends recently.
An acquaintance wrote this article for the New Statesman about being a male feminist, which I rather like but the comments are a bit rubbish.
I loved this piece on Vagenda about the importance of people's stories and their role in forming the way we think about society and our shared histories

I'm currently in training for Salford Triathlon which I'm doing as part of a relay, so I'm only doing the swimming bit. I love this shot of swimmers doing an Ironman triathlon by Wayne Levain

I also love this picture of swimming in the rain that I can't find a source for anywhere even after doing that google image thing so if you know where it's from I'd love to know.

I think Marielle at Magical Day Dream does some absolutely beautiful and creative things that engage people in art and thought. I really loved reading about her giving away 1000 paper cranes to strangers and people's responses to her. So interesting

Finally, I've been intrigued to read about different ways of learning and pursuing knowledge and understanding outside the realms of traditional academia. Two scholars have been filming different systems around the world and hope to make a documentary
This post about one woman's own unschooling in her free time to learn more and find out more about the wider world has made me think about the ways we can use free resources to engage more fully with learning.

Ripple blanket; nearly there!

I'm nearly finished with my ripple blanket! I've been working on it here and there since before October! I haven't written about the blanket since January though, it's a lot bigger than that now! It comfortably covers a single bed and is still getting bigger.
I've been going round and round for the edging this week, I've still got a few more rows I'd like to do but it's so close to being finished! I'm so pleased it's all coming together and looking like a proper attic24 type blanket.

I'm really loving all the bright colours together, so cheery!

Male Cheerleaders; childhood experiences of crossdressing

This troupe of mostly male cheerleaders are the Billerettes. They've been a traditional feature of every local carnival and parade I've been to since I was a wee thing. They march in the parades, dance around and raise a lot of money for local charities
I love them a lot, they're bright, jolly, campy fun which is one of my favourite combinations.

 I mentioned that I was excited about seeing them at my town's carnival to my friend who also had  fond memories of seeing them while she was growing up. We were thinking about the fact that seeing these guys, especially the leader Bill, who has been performing with them for 37 years, was one of the first times that as children we saw men dressing as women. This group and also pantomimes where dames are played by men and leading boys are often girls let me know that sometimes female roles might be played by male actors and likewise sometimes male characters are really women when they're not acting. I'm not sure I have a point to these reflections. The Billerettes performance is obviously a jokey thing and doesn't contain the angst and soul searching that many transgendered people feel but I think there was some benefit in seeing people having fun in non gender traditional roles. On the other hand I could imagine that, for people who are trying to live their everyday lives outside gender "normal" lines, novelty acts such as these would be the opposite of helpful.